JWT's global CEO Gustavo Martinez sued for sexual harassment

Gustavo MartinezJ Water Thompson's global CEO, Gustavo Martinez, has been sued for sexual harassment by the agency's chief communication officer Erin Johnson, as per international news websites MediaPost and AdWeek. Multiple reports suggest that Johnson filed the suit in New York Federal Court against "her boss" with "sexual harassment and routinely making racist and sexist slurs within the agency's offices and other public venues in front of numerous witnesses and even on tape."

Gustavo was named the global CEO in 2013 who replaced Bob Jeffrey. In the lawsuit filed against Martinez, Johnson gives several instances substantiating her claim. According to another report by AdWeek, "The suit claims that Martinez "grabbed [Johnson] around the neck" on more than one occasion after threatening to rape her in the company bathroom and interrupted an executive meeting to ask her which other female employees he might be able to rape."

It also alleges "Martinez's obsession with Johnson led him to once ask other executives to leave his office so that the two could discuss "the sex" and also claims that he suggested a fellow (female) executive should be "raped into submission." Johnson also claims Martinez made racial comments about both Jewish and African-American people.

According to MediaPost, Martinez issued a statement through parent company WPP, where he said, "I am aware of the allegations made against me by a J. Walter Thompson employee in a suit filed in New York Federal Court. I want to assure our clients and my colleagues that there is absolutely no truth to these outlandish allegations, and I am confident that this will be proven in court."